IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

PrePrint: The Cold War Origins of the International Federation for Information Processing

The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) came into official existence in 1960 as a successful continuation of the International Conference on Information Processing (ICIP) held in Paris in 1959. The new organization was born as a non-governmental federation with the main goal of bringing together computer professionals from different countries, comprising East and West. This paper examines the Cold War context of the origins of IFIP and the mechanisms elaborated by its founding fathers to reconcile computing and politics and to construct computing as an international discipline. In order to explain the success of an international forum where Americans, Europeans, and Soviets could talk computing, it calls to shift the focus from the narrative of hardware “gap” between American and Soviet antagonists toward a vision encompassing various aspects of computing, broader range of national communities, and transnational networks of computer professionals.

PrePrint: The Development of Cash Dispensing Technology in the UK

There has been considerable discussion of the role of banks in earlier developments in computing technology. This article gives a useful account of an important technological change by detailing the process of invention of cash machines in Britain. The success of currency dispensers in the 1960s was the technological precondition for the now ubiquitous ATM. Although the mechanization of banks’ routine clerical operations at the point of contact with retail customers is a topic of discussion not generally known, the question as to who invented the cash machine is less illuminating than an understanding of the process of innovation itself and how the need of bankers to offer out-of-hours service transformed into a concrete solution. An examination of the three earliest separate instances of this innovation not only suggests the history of this device but demonstrates how users - in this case banks - shape and direct technological change.

PrePrint: THE MANCHESTER COMPUTER A REVISED HISTORY Part I: The Memory

The Manchester 'Baby', built by Williams and Kilburn, was the first stored-program electronic computer (June 1948). 'Williams tube' memory, pioneered in the Baby, was subsequently adopted in many first-generation computers (including the Princeton IAS machine and the IBM 701). Part I of 'The Manchester Computer: A Revised History' provides an overview of the Manchester computer project and its personnel, and documents the origins of the Williams-Kilburn tube.

PrePrint: Structure, Technology, and Development of the AEG-Telefunken TR 440 Computer

In 1970, when it was installed at the University of Bochum, AEG-Telefunken TR 440 was the most powerful computer which ever had been developed and manufactured in Europe. During the seventies, 45 systems were installed, mainly for scientific computing. TR 440 was the successor of TR 4, but introduced paging, multiple modes of operation, multiprocessing, vastly extended memory, and satellite configurations. TR 440 also came with very innovative system software. The development of a successor was ceased as a result of the merger of the AEG-Telefunken Large Scale Computer Department with Siemens.

PrePrint: From Art Form to Engineering Discipline?: A History of U.S. Military Software Development Standards, 1974-1998

From the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) attempted to enforce software standards for the development of its defense systems. The history if this efforts played out as a struggle for control between the DoD and its contractors in the software and aerospace industries. The industry did not oppose software development standardization per se, but often objected to the specifics of the military's standards. Many software developers, however, resented the software development standards imposed by the DoD, which they felt violated the principle of professional judgment. In addition to highlighting the role that software standards played in debates about professional independence, this story also calls into question the image of a monolithic military-industrial complex. The ultimate failure of the military to get its way reflected, in part, the growing independence of software developers from the military market.

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing - January-March 2010 (Vol. 32, No. 1)

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

PrePrint: Why The ARPANET Was Built

The who, what, when, and how of the ARPANET is usually told in heroic terms. Licklider’s vision; the fervor of his disciples; the dedication of computer scientists and engineers; the work of graduate students; and the attraction of the ARPANET to early participants carries with it a sense of inevitability. But why the ARPANET was built is less frequently addressed. Writing from the viewpoint of the person who signed most of the checks for ARPANET's development, this paper details the rationale for investing Department of Defense resources for research and development of the first operational packet-switched network. The rationale was to exploit new computer technologies to meet the needs of military command and control against nuclear threats, survivable control of U.S. nuclear forces, and to improve military tactical and management decision-making. Though not central to the decision to pursue networking, it was recognized these capabilities were common to non-defense needs.

PrePrint: Sovietization of Czechoslovak computing: the rise and fall of the SAPO project

After World War II, Antonín Svoboda returned to Czechoslovakia with experience in building analog computers, keen interest in digital computing technology, and aspiration to start computer industry in his homeland. Svoboda’s original thoughts were further developed by his students and colleagues and reflected in the design of SAPO, the first Czechoslovak computer. This paper examines the twists and turns of the SAPO project in the 1950s Czechoslovakia.

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NEC

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PrePrint: An Inconspicuous Giant: NTT's Role in the Development of Software Engineering in Japan

Since the mid-1960s, the Japanese government has made massive investment in the development of computer technology. While the role of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is well known, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (NTT) also played an important part. This article focuses on the history of the development of NTT’s information system called DIPS. In particular, it reveals an inconspicuous yet fundamental aspect of NTT’s influence on the Japanese computer industry by examining NTT’s early effort to promote software engineering through the DIPS program.

PrePrint: Unravelling Algol: US, Europe and the creation of a programming language, 1955-1960.

This article discusses the early history of programming language Algol. Current views on Algol assume the European origins of the language as opposed to IBM’s language Fortran. I argue for an alternative view on Algol as a solution to the problem of information exchange between computers. This problem affected computing centres of both sides of the Atlantic. Whereas Algol's promoters sought to create one single universal programming language, other approaches sought to preserve the variety of languages and create a general system of translation (SHARE’s project UNCOL). Therefore the polarity was not between Algol and Fortran but rather between uniformity and diversity.

PrePrint: THE MANCHESTER COMPUTER A REVISED HISTORY Part II: The Baby Computer

Kilburn was first tutored in computer architecture by Turing. He initially (in 1947) designed a 'decentralised' computer based on similar architectural principles to those of Turing's ACE. By 1948, however, he had come to favour an architecture closely resembling that advocated by von Neumann at Princeton. The logical design of the 1948 Manchester Baby was in fact virtually identical to a 1946 Princeton design. It was thanks to Williams's and Kilburn's ground-breaking CRT memory, and their innovative engineering (not their originality as computer architects) that the universal electronic digital computer made its world debut in Manchester. This paper reassesses the place of Williams and Kilburn in the history of computing.

PrePrint: Decreasing meanings of computer games, in the Dutch hobbyist scene, 1975-1995.

The history of computer games has been studied from the perspectives of game design and as a burgeoning business. This paper takes a different path: it reflects on perspectives of users, intermediary organizations, and public opinion. Originally, computer games performed an important role as acts of craftsmanship demonstrating the capabilities of programmers. Firms and professionals furthermore used games as tools of temptation, demystifying computer operation and luring in new parties interested. Hobbyists adopted these uses: at meetings they showed each other their skills in programming. Games attracted new users of personal computers, especially young boys. As computer use became more widespread, and the computer game business took off, the Dutch Hobby Computer Club tried to distinct from game applications. This paper concentrates on the changing visions on games, with examples from the Netherlands. It shows how games in the hobbyist scene lost their multiple meanings beyond entertaining values.

PrePrint: The AEG-Telefunken TR 440 Computer: Company and Large Scale Computer Strategy

Computer development was started in 1957 by AEG-Telefunken. Besides process control computers, the large scale computers played an eminent role. 45 TR 440s were installed, summing up to more than $ 250m by 1974. Nevertheless, computers were not a strategic product of AEG-Telefunken, in spite of the excellent technological position the company had, and in spite of the governmental support which the company and its products got. TR 440 development was confronted with substantial difficulties, conceptional and technological, and lack of qualified personnel and suppliers. Nevertheless, at its start in Bochum, TR 440 was the fastest computer ever designed in Europe, with system software features far ahead of the competitors. Constantly, the company had been searching for business partners; after an interlude with Nixdorf, the large scale computer activities were sold to Siemens, which ended the investigations on a TR 440 successor.

PrePrint: State support for the expansion of UK university computing in the 1950s

Fifty years ago a major injection of government money allowed six UK universities to purchase commercially produced computers. Prior to this only the universities of Cambridge and Manchester, pioneers in the design and construction of computers, had installed machines. Thus the new funding facilitated a very significant increase in computing resources for science and engineering research. Using archive sources, I explain the respective roles of two government agencies, the University Grants committee and the Advisory Committee on High Speed Calculating Machines. I set out the process by which universities were invited to bid for funding, discuss the universities' responses, and examine the rationale for certain universities being awarded grants while others had their proposals rejected.